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Neighbour Vera Richards said she’s known Gladys for 48 years, since moving to Trelander in 1970.

“She was a very lovely lady, everybody up here loved and respected her,” Vera, 81, said. “She was always ready for a chat and always smiling.

Trelander North where the woman's body was found

“I believe she was one of the first tenants to come into the houses up here. Once I said I’d been up here since 1970, and she said ‘I can beat you by quite a few years. I was one of the first when they were built’. And I’m coming up to 82 and she used to say, ‘I can give you 11 years’.

“Her son and my son were mates from 10 years old and they are to this day and they are now 59 years old.

“If I went up the road, if she wasn’t outside, the window would open and she’d say hello and go in and have a little chat for a few minutes.

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“I saw her on the Thursday before this happened, and I was coming down from the shop, and as I went by I was speaking to Brian [Gladys’ son]. And Brian and I were obviously talking too long because she said, ‘I can still get my sewing machine out you know, and do my alterations and things’.”

Vera said Gladys was fixated with making sure the fallen leaves were cleared from her garden in the autumn months.

“Once the leaves came off the trees, you’d find her out the front with a walking stick and a bag, picking up the leaves,” Vera said. “I used to say, ‘Gladys, they’ll blow away’, but she’d say, ‘I don’t like leaves’.

Police cars parked at Trelander North this afternoon

“Apparently she went outside in the evening, and it must have happened then. She’d have been horrified because apparently all the leaves were around her when they found her. The recycle man found her, I felt sorry for him because he had to go back to work, and got on with his job.

“It was a shock to wake up and look up the road and see police tape everywhere, I thought I’ve been here all these years and I’ve never seen that.

"Then I looked further out the window and saw it was Gladys’ house, and I thought ‘oh my God she’s been found dead’. It was the first thing I thought, I was very upset.”

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Sharon’s husband, Steven, added: “She was just a lovely woman, a very nice lady, she really was. She looked after our daughter when we went out and things like that.

“She was what you would call one of these special ladies, she’s always say hello and speak to you if you went up to the shop, even from the top window. On a Sunday morning I’d go up to the shop to get a paper and she’d always say how are you, and things like that.

“She was the sort of woman who would care more about others than herself.

Paul Reeve, who lives directly next to Gladys’ home, remembers helping his neighbour whenever she had a problem.

“I’ve known her for about 20 odd year," he said. "She lived here all her life, she was brought up here.

“She was very popular with a lot of people up here. We always used to see her out pottering around in her garden.

“If she had any problems I used to go in and help her out, like sometimes she would be sat in watching the telly and knock her remote over and couldn’t get it to work, so I’d go in and sort it out for her, things like that.

“It’s a shame what happened. She will certainly be missed by a lot of people up here.”

David Tozer, 71, has known Gladys since he was a young boy, and had spoken to her the day before she was found.

“I was talking to her at 1.50 that afternoon,” he said. “I didn’t know until the recycling boys found her.

“She was a nice lady, good as gold, really lovely, she did all my sewing for me. I’d go in there and have a chat, she’d make me a cup of tea.

“I’ve known her ever since I was this high, kiddies, we were all brought up here together.”

A spokesperson for Devon and Cornwall Police said the death is not being treated as suspicious.